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25 Nov 2015

How the EU "Fitness Check" can become a game changer

By Isabel Hildebrandt

For many years reversing biodiversity declines has not been as high on the EU's agenda as it is today. On 16th December, the Environment Council is set to adopt Conclusions on the EU's Biodiversity Strategy for 2020. On 21st/22nd December the Environment Committee of the European Parliament is set to vote on a report on the same issue, with Plenary following in early 2016. In spring we expect the European Commission's final conclusions on the "Fitness Check" of the EU Birds and Habitats Directives. This exercise has engaged experts, decision makers, business and civil society in all Member States throughout the year and has generated the biggest participation in a public consultation that the EU has ever witnessed, with more than half a million respondents.

On December 1, NABU and BirdLife Europe invited you to a full day workshop to discuss the way forward. Together with conservationists and decision makers, we examined concrete steps the EU has to take in the years ahead to secure our chances of meeting globally-agreed 2020 biodiversity targets. Further, experts presented best practice examples and experiences of implementation of the EU Nature Directives in various Member States. Based on these we developed and discussed recommendations for EU-wide initiatives that could boost the effectiveness, efficiency and acceptance of the Birds and Habitats Directives.

This workshop is part of the project "EU-NaturExchange" carried out by NABU and funded by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) with funds from the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB).